Humanoid Robots • 2016 • episode "S1E1" • The Age of Robots

112:47

This PBS American Experience documentary tells the dramatic story of Henry Ford, the brilliant and controversial industrialist who transformed America. From revolutionizing manufacturing with the assembly line to creating the affordable Model T, Ford reshaped the way people lived and worked. The film also delves into his complex personality, his fierce anti-union stance, and the contradictions between his visionary innovations and his troubling social views.

American Experience • 2013 • Technology

11:40

Automation in the Information Age is different.

In a Nutshell • 2017 • Technology

28:46

There's a power revolution heading for our homes – a device that allows you to take power into your own hands. It starts with batteries, home batteries, and they've been called the holy grail of renewables – the key to the transition away from fossil fuels.

S1E3 • Catalyst: Season 2 • 2017 • Technology

54:51

Dial in to the fascinating history of the smartphone, from its roots in Morse Code to 2007, when Apple unveiled the first-ever iPhone. Plus, see how the next generation of Smartphones will allow us to communicate through them just by thinking.

Breakthrough the Ideas that Changed the World • 2019 • Technology

59:52

New whistleblowers and insiders from social media companies speak out to reveal how algorithms designed to connect people have been helping to tear them apart. With new testimony and documents, they expose a machine thriving on outrage and division as part of a business model, with radicalisation, real-world violence and fractured societies some of the consequences of a system built to shape how users think, feel and see the world.

2026 • Technology

59:00

Mike Wooldridge examines real-life neurons in action and explains how artificial neural networks are inspired by neural structures in the brain. To demonstrate how AI learns, we watch drones as they are trained to recognise and fly through structures in the lecture theatre autonomously. AI exploded into the public consciousness in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT and boasts around 100 million monthly users. Mike unravels the mystery of how large language models like ChatGPT work, and he finds out if one day this technology - along with a whole suite of different AI tools - will allow us to understand the animals we share this planet with. The Christmas Lectures are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825, when Michael Faraday founded the series. They are the world's longest running science television series and always promise to inspire and amaze each year through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.

S1E1 • BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: The Truth about AI • 2023 • Technology